Today I have a really interesting a food for thought guest post all about whether reviewers should give authors 1 star reviews for their books. I can imagine this topic will cause some divide and a mix of opinions and that’s great – as long as we all respect each others’ individual opinion! Yu can also find information of M.L Sparrows book at the bottom of the post!
If you saw my post last month on Why ’13 Reasons Why’ is f***cking important and you should go and watch it now you may have guessed that I really f**ing liked that show, thought it was hella important and felt the need to write an entire blog post about it. I had heard of the book, in fact I had it on my to-read list on Goodreads for a good few years. I thought to concept sounded unique and intriguing but I just never got around to getting myself a copy. When three’s so many good books out, it’s easy for others to get overlooked and pushed to the back of your priorities.
Format: Paperback, won in a giveaway
Links: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Goodreads
Blurb: This is a book about phobias and obsessions, isolation and dark corners. It’s about families, friendships, and carefully preserved secrets. But above everything else it’s about love. Finding love – in any of its forms – and nurturing it.
Miss Hayes has a new theory. She thinks my condition’s caused by some traumatic incident from my past I keep deep-rooted in my mind. As soon as I come clean I’ll flood out all these tears and it’ll all be ok and I won’t be scared of Them anymore. The truth is I can’t think of any single traumatic childhood incident to tell her. I mean, there are plenty of bad memories – Herb’s death, or the time I bit the hole in my tongue, or Finners Island, out on the boat with Sarah – but none of these are what caused the phobia. I’ve always had it. It’s Them. I’m just scared of Them. It’s that simple.
The world has been taken by storm with the new season, “13 Reasons Why” which was released on Netflix earlier this month. Based on the book by Jay Asher, 13 Reasons Why is about Hannah, who has committed suicide and has left behind tape recordings for her old friend, Clay, with the 13 reasons why she did it. In these tapes, she opens up to Clay about what was going on in her life, the people that have wronged her and the events which ultimately led up to her taking her own life. But it’s not all as it seems as these tapes have a far more profound effect on not just Clay but a whole group of kids from their school. Sounds good right? Sounds gripping and shocking? It is. It’s also the most important show I’ve ever watched in my life.
Format: Paperback, ARC
Links: Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US
Blurb: Magic can do a lot – give you flight, show you mermaids, help you taste the stars. And… solve the budget crisis?
That’s what the grown-ups will do with it if they ever make it to Neverland to steal its magic and bring their children home. However, Gwen doesn’t know this. She’s just a sixteen-year-old girl with a place on the debate team and a powerful crush on Jay, the soon-to-be homecoming king. She doesn’t know her little sister could actually run away with Peter Pan, or that she might have to chase after her to bring her home safe. Gwen will find out thought – and when she does, she’ll discover she’s in the middle of a looming war between Neverland and reality.
She’ll be out of place as a teenager in Neverland, but she won’t be the only one. Peter Pan’s constant treks back to the mainland have slowly aged him into adolescence as well. soon, Gwen will have to decide whether she’s going to join impish, playful Peter in his fight or eternal youth… or if she’s going to scramble back to reality in time for the homecoming dance. Continue reading
Format: Paperback, Library
Links: Goodreads | Amazon UK
Blurb: One boy, one boat, one tiger . . .
After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan — and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years. Continue reading
Title: White Lies
Author: Zoe Markham
Format: eBook, NetGalley
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Links: Goodreads | Amazon UK
Blurb: Everybody hurts
For Abigail, a new school could be the fresh start she so desperately needs. With her parents in the army and her sister Beth too far away to run to, she knows this year needs to be different. She’s never been part of the cool crowd and for the first time Abby wants to fit in. And all it takes is just one little white lie…because some truths are too painful to share.
Everybody lies
But at Cotswold Community College, Abby isn’t the only one with a past she’d rather forget. And when she stumbles across a closely-guarded secret, Abigail realises that her one little white lie could reveal everything she’s worked so hard to hide… Continue reading
Title: Under My Skin
Author: Zoe Markham
Format: eBook, ARC for book tour
Links: Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Twitter | Facebook
Blurb: Inside we are all monsters…
Chloe was once a normal girl. Until the night of the car crash that nearly claimed her life. Now Chloe’s mother is dead, her father is a shell of the man he used to be and the secrets that had so carefully kept their family together are falling apart. A new start is all Chloe and her father can hope for, but when you think you’re no longer human how can you ever start pretending?
A contemporary reworking of a British horror classic, Under My Skin follows seventeen-year-old Chloe into an isolated world of darkness and pain, as she struggles to understand what it really means to be alive.
Set against the familiar backdrop of everyday, normal teenage worries, Chloe’s world has become anything but… Continue reading
Title: If I Stay
Author: Gayle Foreman
Publisher: Black Swan
Blurb: The last thing Mia remembers is the music.
After the accident, she can still hear it. And she can see her damaged body being taken from the wreck of her parents’ car – even though she can’t feel a thing.
All she can do it watch as doctors rush to save her life, as her friends and relatives gather outside her room, as the boy she loves struggles to be near her.
As the next twenty-four hours unfold, Mia must come to terms with what came before the crash – and what could come after. And she knows she must make the most difficult choice of all. Continue reading
Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Author: John Green & David Levithan
Publisher: Penguin
Blurb: Will Grayson meets Will Grayson. One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers are about to cross paths. From that moment on, their world will collide and Iives intertwine.
It’s not that far from Evanston to Naperville, but Chiacago suburbanites Will Grayson and Will Grayson might as well live on different planets. When fate delivers them both to the same surprising crossroads, the Will Graysons find their lives overlapping and hurtling in new and unexpected directions. With a push from friends new and old – including the massive, and massively fabulous, Tiny Cooper, offensive lineman and musical theater auteur extraordinaire – Will and Will begin building toward respective romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most awesome high school musical. Continue reading
